Harry's Strange Father
by Rizelpalakka
Summary: What if it were just James Potter who died, and Lily had escaped with baby Harry? After her husband's death, Lily remarries Severus Snape, and Harry gets landed with a hook-nosed potions teacher for a father—what would that be like? (and, between you and me, I don't really know how I feel about the name "Harry Potter-Snape," do you?) WIP


**Disclaimer: I'm not Ms. J.K. Rowling, just so you know.**

Special thanks to my sister who helped pick the title, which was very tough.

**Summary:** What if it were only James who died, and Lily had escaped with baby Harry? After James's death, Lily marries Severus, and Harry ends up with a hook-nosed potions teacher for a father—what would that be like?

**Chapter 1**

**Survival**

Voldemort's wand was poised as he muttered those oh-so-famous words that killed every witch or wizard he had come upon. "_Avada kedavra_," were the words, as he pointed the thirteen-and-a-half-inch wand at James Potter, who fell to the ground as though in slow motion, while the villain let out a cruel, high cackle. He was about to glide upstairs to where the mother and son were hiding when he heard a scream outside. He cocked his head and rushed to the window; What had made that noise? Had he been caught?

Those seven seconds were all Lily Potter needed; she, carrying her tiny son in her arms, scrambled towards the window to jump out. She knew her husband was dead and longed to run to his body, but she needed her child safe and sound; she needed him to live. As she heard the door open, Voldemort gave a shout and pointed his wand at Harry. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

After that, it was all a blur, but Lily could still feel her son's heart beating, and that meant one thing: _he wasn't dead_. She jumped down from the window and ran as fast as she could towards a place she did not know of. Then she remembered; she could Apparate! After checking to see that no one was watching, she Apparated to the first place that came to mind.

-OoOoOo-

Lily patted her baby's back as she bounced from side to side. She then rang the doorbell to a strange-looking house that looked very dark and yet very immaculate. It was taking a very long time for them to answer the door, Lily felt, and finally when she thought she couldn't wait any longer she sank down into a bench by the house, crooning to her young son.

Finally a knob turned, and the door swung open to find her. There stood Severus Snape, wearing his typical countenance of disgruntle and misery; although when he saw Lily, his expression changed. He stepped aside, a gesture of admittance.

"Lily, what are you doing here?" he inquired after she had let herself in, since there was nothing else really he could think of to say.

"J-James is d-d-dead!" Lily hiccuped, tears staining her blouse as she struggled to Harry's back. "And I only j-j-just escaped. Th-through the window in our r-room."

Snape was now busying himself around the house. He grabbed a handleless cup and made some very sweet tea, nearly emptying the sugar bowl as he listened to Lily's seemingly endless story of that Potter, how he had died, her escape, and how sad she was and how she hoped Harry would be all right...he did not particularly fancy hearing about James Potter or her ugly little son, but he was willing to listen to his wife just because she was Lily.

"Here, take this." Snape put the cup into the shaking hands of Lily. "And let me take care of your—your—"

"Harry."

"Yes. Harry."

So Lily took the cup and Snape took the baby. Lily put the tea to her lips, tasted it, and almost immediately spat it out. "It's much too sweet, Severus!" she yelled rather loudly, partly in an attempt to forget the past happenings of tonight.

"Is that a good thing?" Snape said, patting Harry on the back, who burped.

"Well, it's fine, I guess," Lily said, "since I've had such a rough time."

As you could imagine, Snape was more than happy to welcome Lily (despite her blasted son) into his home. He had missed her from their time at Hogwarts, and it had been a very long time since they'd spoken to each other. And, how could he forget the wedding day of her and James: an unusually warm day in September. He had attended it and, under the concealment of a camoflage potion he had taken, watched them make the vows of everlasting love. After that, the scars cut deep, deeper than he had ever known them to cut. He promised himself never to edge any closer to James Potter that day, unless it had something to do with Lily—and Lily, being James's wife, would have a lot of things to do with him.

Snape's lips curled into a thin smile. "I'm sorry."

"I _know_ you are," she grumbled, putting the cup down on the coffee table, "Now give me my child back."

Snape, seeing that her rough night could relate to how grumpy she was, quickly placed Harry back into her arms. "Would you like another tea? And this time I won't put in half the sugar bowl."

"Yes, please," Lily said, rocking Harry around, who cooed.

Harry smiled; he enjoyed listening to Lily and Snape's conversation; their voices put him at ease and he could feel that they were both happy—or, at least, he was happy, and no one was screaming or being evil. He rolled over, trying to signal to his mother that he wanted to turn around. She got the signal and quickly put him in place.

Snape got out the tea again and dropped in the ice cubes, carefully adding only _three teaspoonfuls_ of sugar and then stirring it. "You want it hot?"

"That's all right," Lily said.

So he put it on the stove and waited for it to start boiling.

"I missed you, Severus," Lily said, in a tone as though it weren't important, but Snape saw the urgency of it in her lovely green eyes.

"I'm sure." Snape, on the outside, dismissed it quickly, although he couldn't believe she had missed him inside. He tried to be calm, tried to look into her eyes again, but the expression in them was so powerful he couldn't bring himself to do it.

At least she was in his house.

**A/N: Thanks for reading and everyone who reviewed!**


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